News in Brief

A consortium of 40 New York school districts, most on Long Island,
has filed suit to have the tate's education-finance system overturned
as unfair.

The suit, filed in state supreme court this month on behalf of
Reform Educational Financing Inequities Today, or refit, claims New
York's complex formula for distributing state aid is grossly inadequate
and has resulted in unequal educational opportunities for a significant
number of children across the state.

The suit calls for the refinement of a hold-harmless provision in
the financing formula which, it says, currently ensures that wealthy
school districts will not have their state aid cut from one year to the
next despite dwindling enrollments. Robert E. Molloy, executive
director of refit, said his organization does not wish to abolish the
hold-harmless provision, only to see it made more equitable. A state
court of appeals ruled in a similar suit filed by Long Island districts
in 1982 that the state's financing system may have been inequitable,
but was not illegal.

The suit by refit contends that disparities have worsened since the
1982 decision, with the poorest districts falling from $400 below the
regional average then to $1,500 below the regional average this
year.

The Wyoming House has passed its annual school-funding bill, which
includes an infusion of money into the state funding formu4la, an
increase in funding for each classroom unit, and incentive money for
class-size reduction.

By a 59-to-5 vote late last month, the House voted to begin doling
out money from a $45-million fund that had been standing idle since the
demise several years ago of a separate classroom unit for vocational
instruction. The money would be fed into the funding formula over the
next five years.

The bill tries to compensate for the loss of vocational money to
some districts by increasing by $4,000 the payment for each existing
classroom unit--a statewide increase of about $18.5 million, according
to Representative James C. Hageman, chairman of the House Education
Committee. The school-finance measure also offers $2.2 million for
incentive pay ments to districts that reduce class sizes.

Colorado school districts that reduce their number of teachers would
be required to make pro portionate reductions in administrative staffs,
under legislation L approved by the House.

The bill, passed on a 36-to-26 vote, states that reductions in
administra tive positions would be made over a three-year "rolling
average" period.

A similar bill passed the House last year, but died in the
Senate.

Phil Fox, director of government relations for the Colorado
Association of School Boards, said the measure is largely directed at
the Denver school system, which has reduced its teaching force in
recent years, due to declining enrollment, while continuing to increase
its administrative staff.

Mr. Fox said his association opposes the bill because staffing
decisions are best left up to local school boards.

Web Only

Notice: We recently upgraded our comments. (Learn more here.) If you are logged in as a subscriber or registered user and already have a Display Name on edweek.org, you can post comments. If you do not already have a Display Name, please create one here.

Ground Rules for Posting
We encourage lively debate, but please be respectful of others. Profanity and personal attacks are prohibited. By commenting, you are agreeing to abide by our user agreement.
All comments are public.